Tag Archives: Personal

The Human Abstract

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Something happened earlier today that made me think of this rather frightening poem by William Blake, from his Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

     The Human Abstract

Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we:

And mutual fear brings peace:
Till the selfish loves increase.
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears:
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpiller and Fly,
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat:
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea,
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
But their search was all in vain;
There grows one in the Human Brain

                   by William Blake

Why frightening? Well Blake often uses the term Mystery to describe, in his view, an oppressive system that enslaves people by abstracting or supernaturalising real natural and cultural forces in order to make slaves of them … “And at length they pronounced that Gods had ordered such Things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast“.

On an Eclipse of the Moon

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Struggling, and faint, and fainter didst thou wane,
O Moon! and round thee all thy starry train
Came forth to help thee, with half-open eyes,
And trembled every one with still surprise,
That the black Spectre should have dared assail
Their beauteous queen and seize her sacred veil


                                    by Walter Savage Landor

Dreamland

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When midnight mists are creeping,
    And all the land is sleeping,
Around me tread the mighty dead,
    And slowly pass away.

    Lo, warriors, saints, and sages,
    From out the vanished ages,
With solemn pace and reverend face
    Appear and pass away.

    The blaze of noonday splendour,
    The twilight soft and tender,
May charm the eye: yet they shall die,
    Shall die and pass away.

    But here, in Dreamland's centre,
    No spoiler's hand may enter,
These visions fair, this radiance rare,
    Shall never pass away.

    I see the shadows falling,
    The forms of old recalling;
Around me tread the mighty dead,
    And slowly pass away.

              by Lewis Carroll

Harry Potter, St. Augustine and the Confrontation with Evil

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I was intrigued when I came across this talk by Jean Bethke Elshtain. Right at the beginning of the talk she argues that the language of evil, sin, horror and the like have been banished from the vocabulary of many elites in the west and particularly amongst the clergy. She goes on to suggest that its easier to talk about syndromes than about sin, or easier to talk about maladjustments than about evil, because evil seems archaic and elemental and too judgemental. Whilst some might find these assertions provocative they certainly piqued my interest.

During her talk Jean refers often to the works of Andrew Delbanco, and in particular to his book “The Death of Satan:How Americans have lost the sense of evil“. I haven’t read the book yet but from her talk it’s certainly one that I want to read. Jean states that Delbanco makes the assertion that:

Without evil we will abandon any notion of the sacred of that which should not be violated. Without evil it is difficult to articulate what is good … the repertoire of evil has never been richer but never have our responses been so weak. We have no language for connecting our inner lives with the horrors that pass before our eyes in the outer world.

We have no language for connecting our inner lives with the horrors that pass before our eyes … that’s quite profound and it’s a statement I’ve been pondering since first listening to this talk. Jean’s premise, if I’m interpreting it correctly, is that as a society or even culturally we are no longer able to talk about evil. It’s something that she maintains even children’s literature has shied away from, that it is perhaps too frightening for the young, or too judgemental. Evil, though, plays a central role in the Harry Potter books; it’s given a name, personified and confronted – I wonder if she considers this to be a more traditional view? She certainly uses the Harry Potter books as a vehicle to illustrate her points, and she does it very well. Now, whilst I have read the books and seen the movies, that isn’t the reason I found this talk so captivating. I found it interesting because of the theological questions and cultural issues she touches on. Of them all this is the most interesting …

If a good God created the earth, then how did evil enter into it.

It’s a question that theologians and philosophers have been fretting over since the likes of Irenaeus and St Augustine presented their theodicies on the subject. Theodicy is a specific branch of theology and philosophy that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the assumption of a benevolent God. To try and understand the nature of the problem Augustine in his Confessions expressed the dilemma as such:

Either God cannot abolish evil, or he will not. If he cannot then he is not all-powerful. If he will not then he is not all-good

One way to view this is that a good God would eliminate evil as far as it is possible. If he is omnipotent then all evil should be eliminated. However, evil exists. So, why does God allow evil to continue?

I debated the issue with Amanda I think they’re was a difference of opinion I wont put words in her mouth but I struggled with the notion of Original Sin and I’m going to leave it to her to offer her views on this topic. From my point of view if Evil entered this world it’s because of our free will. I think that for man to respond freely to God, he must be able to make his own decisions. This means that ultimately, a man may choose to do good or commit moral evil. The reality is that no one is entirely good or entirely evil. To take this logically further this means that God cannot intervene to stop suffering because this would jeopardise human freedom and take away the need for responsibility and development.

From my limited reading on Theodicies I get the impression that my standpoint is more in line with Irenaeus view – he argued that Evil was the result of our free will – which I believe is also the Islamic view ( taken from here ):

the angels protested to God against man’s creation, but lost in a competition of knowledge against Adam, who was taught the names of all things. The Qur`an declares man to be the finest of all creatures and he willingly bore the trust which the heavens and the earth refused to bear. All of creation was subjected to man, who by virtue of the rational faculty with which he was endowed, was enjoined to, and entrusted with, the development of civilization. In such endeavor he may be, either righteous or corrupt, a monotheist or an unbeliever. As the Qur`an affirms, there is no compulsion in faith and religion; in other words, faith belongs to the domain of individual freedom and choice. Moreover, life and existence were not created in vain, but were brought into being so that God is obeyed and worshipped. Thus, Islam is profoundly teleological while affirming theodicy in creation.

It must be noted that Islam views human nature as fallible and faltering- that man is oppressive and prone to ignorance- despite his lofty station in the universe. By contrast to angels who are instinctively obedient to God, man is inclined to error. Pride is the cardinal sin of man- a sin which detracts man from submission to a unique God, and which makes him ascribe partners to Him. In Islam, the most heinous of transgressions is shirk or polytheism

As such it is at odds with St Augustine’s view which was that God created the world and at that time it was Good, and that Evil is a “privation of good”, in other words it isn’t an entity in itself – like blindness could be viewed as a privation of sight … that seems to resonate with something Amanda was saying that Evil “was a lack of something”.

Anyway this whole discussion has given me something to think about … and I do enjoy these philosophical debates with Amanda.

Vampire Sestina

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The first time I read this poem was in my teens, came across it again today as I was sorting through some of the books I left at my parents place. The poem was even the inspiration for a graphic arts project I did at college … 

           Vampire Sestina 

I wait here at the boundaries of dream,
all shadow-wrapped. The dark air tastes of night,
so cold and crisp, and I wait for my love.
The moon has bleached the color from her stone.
She'll come, and then we'll stalk this pretty world
alive to darkness and the tang of blood.

It is a lonely game, the quest for blood,
but still, a body's got the right to dream
and I'd not give it up for all the world.
The moon has leeched the darkness from the night.
I stand in shadows, staring at her stone:
Undead, my lover . . . O, undead my love?

I dreamt you while I slept today and love
meant more to me than life -- meant more than blood.
The sunlight sought me, deep beneath my stone,
more dead than any corpse but still a-dream
until I woke as vapor into night
and sunset forced me out into the world.

For many centuries I've walked the world
dispensing something that resembled love --
a stolen kiss, then back into the night
contented by the life and by the blood.
And come the morning I was just a dream,
cold body chilling underneath a stone.

I said I would not hurt you. Am I stone
to leave you prey to time and to the world?
I offered you a truth beyond your dreams
while all you had to offer was your love.
I told you not to worry and that blood
tastes sweeter on the wing and late at night.

Sometimes my lovers rise to walk the night . . .
Sometimes they lie, cold corpse beneath a stone,
and never know the joys of bed and blood,
of walking through the shadows of the world;
instead they rot to maggots. O my love
they whispered you had risen, in my dream.

I've waited by your stone for half the night
but you won't leave your dream to hunt for blood.
Good night, my love. I offered you the world.

                         by Neil Gaiman

 

The Winds of Fate

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One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through the life:
Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.


                        by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Semantic web and other ramblings with some fellow Talisians over a curry …

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Danny AyersHad a wonderful evening tonight, Ian invited us all out for a curry with Danny and his lovely wife Caroline. Unfortunately due to the short notice fewer of us were able to attend than I suspect Ian had hoped for. In fact it was only Danny, Caroline, Ian, Amanda and myself.

Danny and Caroline are both wonderful people – both are self confessed geeks and each has a diverse range of interests. I’ve been looking forward to being able to catch up with Danny; the last time we had a chat was at the Talis Summer Ball but that evening was full of frolics and not really the forum for any meaningful conversations about the future of the semantic web, the flexibility of RDF or FOAF and it’s value.

Danny’s a tinkerer – he likes to play with things, he likes to experiment with ideas and create things, which means he  looks for new ways of thinking about old problems and in doing so I think he comes up with equally novel ideas on how to solve those problems. I really like that. Some of his ideas are fascinating, some just scary and others are simply beyond my grasp (but I im not worried about that as Danny said I’m still just a bloody youngster!) . Of course all this could just mean that he’s a total nutter … but guess what? if he is… then he’s come to the right place! 😉

I think I learnt a lot this evening about Danny, and a great deal from talking to him. He certainly has that infectious enthusiasm we’ve come to kind of expect from everyone in our team. But to top it all off he’s a great guy and I’m really looking forward to working more closely with him and hopefully learning a lot more from him now that he’s part of our team at Talis.

It’s been a great evening and I had a wonderful time! 🙂

Talis Summer Party

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Had a wonderful evening last night at the Talis Summer Ball. The theme was a seventies, carribbean disco and there were some amazing costumes. I wish I had taken my camera with me, fortunatly plenty of others did and I’ll try to link through to some of their pictures when they are available.

It was a really wonderful evening!

A Note On The Word ‘Nigger’

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Here’s an interesting essay by Randall Kennedy, Professor of Law at Harvard:

The term has been put to other uses. Some blacks, for instance, use “nigger” among themselves as a term of endearment. But that is typically done with a sense of irony that is predicated upon an understanding of the term’s racist origins and a close relationship with the person to whom the term is uttered. As Clarence Major observed in his Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970), “used by black people among themselves, [nigger] is a racial term with undertones of warmth and goodwill – reflecting…a tragicomic sensibility that is aware of black history.” Many blacks object, however, to using the term even in that context for fear that such usage will be misunderstood and imitated by persons insufficiently attuned to the volatility of this singularly complex and dangerous word.

It’s the final sentence of that passage, the one I have highlighted in bold,  that has me wondering whether a young lady who uttered the word and at the time seemed to be  motivated more by alcohol and adolescent stupidity rather than any malicious intent, should have been ejected from a television show.

Kennedy’s words are particularly poignant because we are, increasingly, living in a society where black performers in the music industry are using the word “nigger” so increasingly, it seems to permeate rap and hip hop music to the point that it is used so frequently in lyrics it’s become totally ubiquitous. It no longer seems to matter what the etymology of the word actually is … it’s become part of popular culture.

For example …

I love the artist Sissel, I think she has one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard. I remember not too long ago my younger brother was listening to a song in his car, he’s into rap and hip hop music – I’m not. The song had a good beat but there was nothing particularly great about it, unti Sissel starts singing the chorus in this glorious operatic voice that works so well with the beat. I listen to the song a lot, it has a permanent fixture in my On-The-Go play list on my iPod.  So what’s the point I’m making? Here’s the video for the song … I want you to count the number of times Warren G uses the word “nigger” and also count the number of times the word “fuck” is bleeped out – and explain to me why one is censored but the other is perfectly acceptable?

I noticed that a spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality commented on the Big Brother incident by stating: “whichever way you look at it using the ‘n’ word is offensive”.  Well to that spokesman I would say if its that offensive shouldn’t we all stop using it?  ( personally I think the most racist organisation in Great Britain is The Commission for Racial Equality, but that’s a whole different rant!).

I think that when words, not matter how offensive, are hijacked by popular culture, their meaning becomes skewed and this results in confusion. When is it ok to use the word nigger? Is it only black’s who should be allowed to use it? If its not ok then why should I have to hear it every time I listen to a rap song, or a hip hop song? Why should I have to see it on the screen when I play Grand Theft Auto?

If the meaning of a word has become confused then surely the context and the intent with which the word is used should be what is used to determine whether we label the one using it as racist.